Excerpting, minor editing, interspersed comment by
Carolyn Bennett
ENTRENCHED MADNESS
In the United States of America, “The defense industry has
bound itself to the government and the blind acceptance of this by the American
public has allowed the military-industrial complex to institutionalize itself
in, and become an integral part of, the American economy.
“When an economy and a culture are based on a militarized
society, it makes it more likely and close to inevitable that that society will
go to war, that it will always find someone else to fight.
“The NFL, as an entertainment industry and the country’s
most popular and profitable sport, is just the most transparent articulation of
this society. Patriotism is not a
negative characteristic in a society. Militarism is.” [Rowan Kane writes September
9, 2013, in “The NFL and the Militarization of the American Public.”]
Pageantry, Props, LAZY PATRIOTS
“The military’s agitprop, exemplified in the Tillman story,
actively fosters a kind of lazy patriotism that makes people disinclined to ask
tough questions about the broader context of our soldiers’ sacrifice.
“Just snap a selfie with the statue, dutifully bow your head
when some ‘support the troops’-type bromide gets blasted through stadium speakers
during warm-ups, and that’s it. You’ve done your duty…. “
Use the, abuse them, discard them: “Tillman was a man
possessed of exceptional bravery and a fiercely independent mind. But his story
is also one of cynical image management conducted at the highest levels of the
American military in order to foster public support for war. And it's precisely
this kind of pernicious narrative building that animates much of the U.S. military’s
marketing, which, it just so happens, thoroughly saturates NFL games.
“Tillman died from ‘friendly fire.’ His Ranger platoon was
traveling through a valley in Southeast Afghanistan when, in response to a
couple of rifle shots from local insurgents aimed at the back half of the
convoy, Tillman, another ranger, and a local Afghan militia fighter set up
position overlooking the mouth of the valley. One of the tail-end humvees
emerged, mistook Tillman and the others for enemies, and opened fire. During
several minutes of shooting, three bullets shattered his skull. He’d been
repeatedly shouting—screaming— ‘Why are you shooting at me? I'm Pat fucking
Tillman!’” [Rob Montz writes February. 1, 2015, in “Super Bowl XLIX as a Case
Study in the Mechanics of Pro-War Propaganda”]
W
|
elcome
home. Thanks for your service.
Montz: “The conception and execution of US wars in the 21st
century has often been epically inept.
“In Iraq, as extensively documented, a complete lack of
post-invasion planning left allied forces flat-footed once sectarian violence
filled the power vacuum created by Saddam's fall.
“Seriously: a 21-year-old whose most significant job up to
that point had been driving an ice cream truck was charged with purging the
central government of Baathist militia.
“The cost of this ineptitude is denominated in corpses [not
to mention countless millions of Iraqis birth deformed, maimed, and dead, whole
systems, infrastructure, ways of living ruined]. Since 2001, 6,845 US soldiers
have been killed in the United States’ Middle East war theater. Thousands more
have returned home ruined by the physical and psychological ravages of combat.”
[Montz]
 |
| Iraq's children |
VIOLENCE, MORE VIOLENCE
Decades old barbarism needs to end
They do not fund nor do they value education but the
violence of sport and the violence of war—
Monday nights and Sundays, ringside seats at the tube watching men “giving
each other concussions.” [Echoes of an Abby Martin essay this week]
“There is a long tradition of likening football to war, from
paeans to the ‘generalship’ of quarterbacks in the 1890s to the ‘wars in the
trenches’ of the modern game.”
Swapping Nomenclature: “While coaches and sportswriters have
adopted military language over the years, the military has sometimes adopted
football terminology”: “‘Operation Goalpost’” and “‘Operation Varsity’” during World
War II; “‘Operation Linebacker’” during the war against Vietnam.
In the 1960s, football was “warlike” and “political.” US
President Richard Nixon “used football … to identify with his ‘silent majority’
against his enemies.…”
Orange Bowl (then the Super Bowl) “pregame and halftime” pageantry
showcased “elaborate patriotic displays.” And brainwashed or brain dead football
fans “came to take this football-related ‘patriotism’, a brand of flag-waving …
super-patriotism, for granted—as if it were embedded in long tradition, perhaps
even in the very nature of the game. [But] it was not and is not.” [Michael
Oriard writes November 17, 2009, in “Flag Football: How the NFL became the
American war game.”]
Sources and notes
Rob Montz is a Searle Fellow at Reason TV.
According to its website, Reason, a foundation and media
outlet, “covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news,
analysis, commentary, and reviews; … provides a refreshing alternative to
right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for
liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity; is the monthly print
magazine of ‘free minds and free markets.’… Reason and Reason.com are
editorially independent publications of the Reason Foundation, a national,
non-profit research and educational organization.”
Rowan Kane is a writer based in Connecticut and editor of The Volterra.
Michael Oriard is an author and filmmaker.
http://wordlink.com/l/VGUX
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2009/11/flag_football.html
http://thevolterra.com/2013/09/09/the-nfl-and-the-militarization-of-the-american-public/
A lifelong American writer and writer/activist (former academic and staffer with the U.S. government in Washington), Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett is credentialed in education and print journalism and public affairs (PhD, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; MA, The American University, Washington, DC). Her work concerns itself with news and current affairs, historical contexts, and ideas particularly related to acts and consequences of U.S. foreign relations, geopolitics, human rights, war and peace, and violence and nonviolence. Dr. Bennett is an internationalist and nonpartisan progressive personally concerned with society and the common good. An educator at heart, her career began with the U.S. Peace Corps, teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Since then, she has authored several books and numerous current-affairs articles; her latest book: UNCONSCIONABLE: How The World Sees Us: World News, Alternative Views, Commentary on U.S. Foreign Relations; most thoughts, articles, edited work are posted at Bennett’s Study: http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/ and on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/08UNCONSCIONABLE/prweb12131656.htm http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-000757788/UNCONSCIONABLE.aspx Her books are also available at independent bookstores in New York State: Lift Bridge in Brockport; Sundance in Geneseo; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center in Buffalo; Burlingham Books in Perry; The Bookworm in East Aurora
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